Miniature lamp assembly

ABSTRACT

A miniature lamp assembly which includes a replaceable wire lead miniature bulb and a housing having a receptacle for receiving the bulb. A pair of terminal contact members are mounted on the housing with portions thereof exposed within the receptacle. A two-piece bulb base is provided for assembly with the bulb to position and hold the wire leads so that the bulb and bulb base can easily be inserted into the receptacle formed by the housing with the wire leads in engagement with the exposed portions of the terminal contact members.

United States Patent 3,276,014 9/1966 Rueger 24()/8.l6 X 3,286,25511/1966 Sanchez... 24(1/8. l6 X 1476928 I 1/1969 (Ircnsley -ltl/tlltu lPrimary Examiner-Samuel S. Matthews Assistant Examiner-Monroe H1 HayesAttorneys-Howard T. Markey, Alfred H. Plyer, Jr., James G.

Staples and Daniel C. McEachran ABSTRACT: A miniature lamp assemblywhich includes a replaceable wire lead miniature bulb and a housingliming Ll receptacle for receiving the bulb. A pair of terminal contactmembers are mounted on the housing with portions thereof exposed withinthe receptacle. A two-piece bulb base is provided for assembly with thebulb to position and hold the wire leads so that the bulb and bulb basecan easily be inserted into the receptacle formed by the housing withthe wire leads in engagement with the exposed portions of the terminalcontact members.

PATENTEU saw 4:911 3604' 91 sum 2 or 2 MINIATURE LAMP ASSEMBLYBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Extremely small electrical bulbs of the typeshown in the patent to George, Jr. US. Pat. No. 3,229,083 are now widelyused for connection into electrical circuits. As stated therein, suchbulbs have been available with two different means for connecting thebulb into an electrical circuit. Bulbs with wire leads have beensoldered or welded directly into the circuit. This mode of use proved tobe quite satisfactory for initial installation but it presented manydifficulties when the bulb needed replacing. Bulbs also have beenavailable with metal bases for insertion into mating sockets. Thislatter type of bulb is much easier to install and replace, but the baseand socket often are larger than the bulb, defeating the purpose ofachieving a small overall installation. The lamp structure of the Georgepatent is of a third type in which a wire lead miniature bulb isslidably inserted and removed from a lamp socket with the wire leadsslidably received in a pair of tubular conductors. This third type ofassembly provided for replacement of the bulbs, met the necessary smalloverall dimensions, but complicated the situation by requiring carefulmanipulation of the bulb so that the very small wire leads enter thetubular conductors and provide a suitable contact therewith.

The wire lead miniature bulbs of the character described are oftentimesless than an eighth of an inch in diameter and one-quarter of an inch inlength, and having wire leads in the order of 0.007to 0.001 1-inchdiameter. Wire leads of this size are extremely difficult to manipulateinto position for initial assembly into the receptacles or forreplacement. It would be desirable to provide a bulb base which wouldposition the wire leads and hold the leads in place for proper insertioninto the receptacle formed by the housing, in engagement with terminalcontact members within the receptacle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The principal object of this invention is toprovide a new and improved miniature lamp assembly particularly adaptedfor use with very small bulbs and one which permits easy replacement ofthe bulbs.

Another object of the invention is to provide a lamp assembly of thecharacter described for use with a wire lead miniature bulb and bulbbase, with sliding insertion and removal of the bulb and bulb base froma receptacle formed by a lamp housing.

A further object of the invention is to provide a lamp assembly for areplacement wire lead miniature bulb and including a lamp housing havinga receptacle for receiving the bulb, a pair of terminal contact membersmounted on the housing for sliding engagement with the leads of thebulb, and a twopiece bulb base positioning and holding the wire leads inplace for engaging the terminal contact members as the bulb and bulbbase are positioned within the receptacle of the housing.

The two-piece bulb base set forth in the preceding paragraph includes abody member having a head portion with a frustoconical seat on which thebase of the bulb is seated. The head has a central recess anddiametrically disposed slots through which the wire leads extend fromthe base of the bulb to the exterior of the body member of the lampbase. The body member also has a generally tubular shank portionextending below the head portion thereof whereby the wire leads can bewrapped around the bottom of the shank portion with the free ends of theleads extending upwardly into the interior of the shank portion. Thesecond piece of the bulb base comprises an insulator plug member whichis wedged into the interior of the shank portion of the bulb base toseparate the free ends of the wire leads, insulate the leads from eachother, and hold the leads in position so that the assembled bulb andbulb base can be inserted slidably into'the receptacle formed by thehousing with the leads in proper engagement with the terminal contactmembers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a longitudinal central sectionalview of the miniature lamp assembly of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a view taken generally along the line 22 of FIG. I, with thebulb and bulb base removed;

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the lamp assembly;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view, partly in section, of an assembled bulband bulb base, removed from the lamp housing;

FIG. Sis a top plan view ofa bulb base;

FIG. 6 is a central sectional view of the bulb base taken generallyalong the line 6-6 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a bottom plan view of the bulb base;

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view, on a reduced scale, of the miniaturelamp assembly of this invention; and

FIG. 9 is an elevational view, on a reduced scale, taken generally inthe direction of line 9-9 in FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to the drawings ingreater detail, the invention is shown herein as embodied in a miniaturelamp assembly which includes a mounting tube or lamp housing 10,terminal contact members II, a lens cap 12, a wire lead miniature bulb13 positioned within the housing 10, and a bulb base, generallydesignated 14.

The bulb 13 may be a conventional incandescent bulb with flexible wireleads l6 normally intended for soldering directly into an electricalcircuit. However, as will be set forth in greater detail hereinafter,the bulb base 14 is of novel construction so as to position the wireleads and hold the leads in place against the upper ends of the terminalcontact members 1 1.

The housing 10 is in the form of a socket providing a receptacle I7 andmay be molded of glass or filled nylon and includes openings 18 at theclosed end thereof for receiving the terminal contact members 11. Thehousing is mounted on a suitable support such as a panel 20 by pushingthe housing into a mating opening 22 from the front side of the panel.The housing is preferably provided with a collar or flange 24 and aplurality of tapering surfaces 26, with the tapers converging toward theclosed end of the housing forming ribs which look the housing into theopening 22 of the panel 20. The opening in the panel is preferably of asize to provide an interference fit at the maximum diameter of the ribsformed by the tapered surfaces 26. The housing is preferably cylindricalfor insertion into round openings, but, of course, square, octagonal andother cross-sectional shapes may be utilized for the housing, asdesired. A boss 28 extends away from the closed end of the housing 10between the terminal contact members 11 and is provided to reduce thedanger of short circuiting.

The lens cap 12 is generally hemispherical and may be molded ofpolycarbonate, may be transparent or translucent, and may be clear orhave any desired color. Means are provided for affixing the cap on thehousing so that the cap can be mounted and removed as desired.Preferably, an annular groove 30 on the interior of the cap engages apair of annular ribs 32 (as best seen in FIG. 2) on the upper end of thehousing, permitting the cap to be pushed into place onto the housing andto be removed by hand pulling. Various other forms of caps may beutilized with the housing, such as, for instance, one with flat faces.

The terminal contact members 11 are preferably flat and elongated withthe upper ends 34 thereof bent outwardly to facilitate camming the bulbbase 14 and wire leads l6 therebetween, as will be described below.

The bulb base itself is illustrated best in FIGS. 5 through 7 and isshown assembled with the bulb l3 and wire leads I6 in FIGS. 1, 4 and 9.The bulb base comprises two pieces and includes a body member which hasa head portion 36 provided with a frustoconical seat 38 on which isseated the base of the bulb 13. The head portion 36 has a central recess39 and a pair of diametrically disposed slots 40 extending outwardlyfrom the central recess and through which the wire leads 16 extend fromthe base of the bulb 13. This structure permits the wire leads to bedisposed on the exterior of the bulb base 14 in position for engagementwith the upper ends of the terminal contact members 11. The body memberof the bulb base 14 has a generally tubular shank portion 42 extendingbelow the head portion 36 providing an interior recess opening oppositesaid head portion 36. The shank portion has a pair of diametricallydisposed slots 44 at the lower end thereof in angular alignment with theslots 40 in the head portion 36. As seen best in FIGS. 1 and 4, the wireleads 16 (extending from the base of the bulb 13, through slots 40, andpositioned on the exterior of the shank portion 42) are bent around thelower end of the shank portion through the slots 44 so that the ends ofthe leads extend into the interior of the shank portion 42. The secondpiece of the bulb base comprises an insulator plug member 46 (FIGS. 1and 4) which is wedged into the shank portion 42 from the bottom thereofto urge the free ends of the wire leads 16 into a pair of longitudinalgrooves 48 (FIG. 7) in angular alignment with the slots 44 at the bottomof the shank portion 42. It thus can be seen that this novel two-piecebulb base 14, comprising the body member (FIGS. -7) and the insulatorplug member 46, spaces the wire leads 16 from each other, positions thewire leads for engagement with the pair of terminal contact members 11,holds the wire leads in such position to facilitate assembling the lampassembly, and insulates the free ends of the wire leads from each other.

The lamp assembly of this invention is particularly adapted for use withvery small bulbs and provides a complete installation for a replaceablebulb that is extremely small and one which requires a minimum of volumein addition to that occupied by the bulb itself. With the structuredisclosed by this invention, it can be seen that the bulb can be mountedon the bulb base 14 with the wire leads 16 extending from the base ofthe bulb properly positioned and held in place for easy insertion intothe receptacle 17 in engagement with the terminal contact members 11,either prior to or after the housing is mounted in the panel 20. Thereis no need for tedious manipulation of the extremely fine size wireleads 16 in order to position the bulb within the housing 10. The entirelamp assembly may be assembled as a unit as shown in FIG. 8 and thenmounted in the panel 20 or the various components of the assembly may bemounted individually into the panel as follows. First, the housing 10 ispress fit into the opening 22 in the panel 20. The terminal contactmembers 1 1 may be positioned into the openings 18 at the closed end ofthe housing 10 from the inside thereof, either before or after thehousing is mounted on the panel 20. The bulb and bulb base assembly, asshown in FIGS. 4 and 9, may be assembled as described above andmaintained in stock as complete assemblies. The bulb and bulb baseassembly is simply pushed into the open end of the housing 10 with thewire leads l6 angularly disposed for engagement with the upper ends 34of the terminal contact members 11. The lens cap 12 is then snapped overthe ribs 32 on the upper end of the housing to completely encase andprotect the bulb.

The foregoing detailed description has been given for clearness ofunderstanding only and no unnecessary limitations should be understoodtherefrom as some modifications will obvious to those skilled in theart.

We claim:

I. A miniature illuminating lamp assembly including an illuminating bulbhaving elongated flexible wire leads extending outwardly from the bulb,a housing having a receptacle for receiving the lead end of the bulb,and terminal contact members mounted on the housing for engagement withthe wire leads of the bulb, the improvement comprising a two-piece bulbbase including a body member having a head portion on which said bulb isseated and a generally tubular shank portion extending below the headportion around the bottom of which wire leads are wrapped with the freeends of the leads extending upwardly into the interior of the shankportion, and a plug member wedged into the interior of the shank portionfor separating the free ends of the wire leads and holding the wireleads in position for engagement with said terminal contact members.

2. The lamp assembly of claim 1 wherein the head portion of said bodymember has a central recess and diametrically disposed slots throughwhich the wire leads extend from the base of the bulb to the exterior ofthe shank portion of the body member.

3. The lamp assembly of claim 1 wherein said plug member is aninsulator.

4. A miniature illuminating lamp assembly including an illuminating bulbhaving elongated flexible wire leads extending outwardly from the bulb,a housing having a receptacle for receiving the lead end of the bulb,and terminal contact members mounted on the housing for engagement withthe wire leads of the bulb, the improvement comprising a two piece bulbbase including a body member having a central recess in which the bulbis seated, diametrically opposed slots in said body member opening intosaid recess through which the wire leads extend from the base of thebulb to the exterior of the body member, a recess in the interior ofsaid body member, the wire leads being wrapped around said body memberwith the free ends thereof positioned within said last-named recess, anda plug member being positioned in said last-named recess to separate thefree wire ends and hold them in spaced relationship while holding thewire leads in position on the exterior of said body member.

1. A miniature illuminating lamp assembly including an illuminating bulbhaving elongated flexible wire leads extending outwardly from the bulb,a housing having a receptacle for receiving the lead end of the bulb,and terminal contact members mounted on the housing for engagement withthe wire leads of the bulb, the improvement comprising a two-piece bulbbase including a body member having a head portion on which said bulb isseated and a generally tubular shank portion extending below the headportion around the bottom of which wire leads are wrapped with the freeends of the leads extending upwardly into the interior of the shankportion, and a plug member wedged into the interior of the shank portionfor separating the free ends of the wire leads and holding the wireleads in position for engagement with said terminal contact members. 2.The lamp assembly of claim 1 wherein the head portion of said bodymember has a central recess and diametrically disposed slots throughwhich the wire leads extend from the base of the bulb to the exterior ofthe shank portion of the body member.
 3. The lamp assembly of claim 1wherein said plug member is an insulator.
 4. A miniature illuminatinglamp assembly including an illuminating bulb having elongated flexiblewire leads extending outwardly from the bulb, a housing having areceptacle for receiving the lead end of the bulb, and terminal contactmembers mounted on the housing for engagement with the wire leads of thebulb, the improvement comprising a two piece bulb base including a bodymember having a central recess in which the bulb is seated,diametrically opposed slots in said body member opening into said recessthrough which the wire leads extend from the base of the bulb to theexterior of the body member, a recess in the interior of said bodymember, the wire leads being wrapped around said body member with thefree ends thereof positioned within said last-named recess, and a plugmember being positioned in said last-named recess to separate the freewire ends and hold them in spaced relationship while holding the wireleads in position on the exterior of said body member.